The Strongest of All
by The Queen of Asgard
Summary: Izzy has just learned that Aliens killed everyone in her hometown and Predators are hunting them. However, when they are all destroyed, where does that leave a slightly lovestruck ooman?   PredOCxHumOC  -Rated M for sexual content. R&R!
1. My Town

**Just an idea for an AvP story I've had in awhile. This sort of interlocks with Irene Howard's story a little bit except for the fact it's happening on Earth. Anyway, if you like it, read and review, I just popped out 1,811 words in under 45 minutes to get this up before my internet shuts off. I hope you guys like it and if you do, please feel free to leave some advice, praise or just a "UPDATE NOW WOMAN!" **  
**Thanks for sticking with me! :D **

**~FCF~**  
**Aliens (c) No idea, but not me. **  
**Predators (c) Same**  
**Izzy Cartwright (c) Yours truly! :D**

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_"As I walk through the valley of the Shadow of L.A._  
_The Footsteps that were next to me have gone their separate ways,_  
_I've seen enough now to know that beautiful things_  
_Don't always stay that way..._  
_I've done enough now to know this beautiful place, _  
_Isn't every thing they say."  
**-Good Charlotte**  
**-The River**  
_

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She might have been a pretty girl but it was hard to tell under sleep deprived bags and a long blonde ponytail that looked like it hadn't been washed in two days. She tapped her feet too often for the people on the flight to really think she was a good kid. Actually, she wasn't even really a kid. She was twenty, a sophomore in college who was coming home for the summer. And she wasn't always this laid back and relaxed. A week of finals could do this to a business major.

Her name was Izzy Cartwright and she was the daughter of a rather well established business man who had turned to the rural side of life and moved out to a boonies town in the middle of Eastern Oregon to shovel hay for his cattle and horses. Izzy had quickly adapted and had flourished enough to become a girl who fit right into the shoes of a cowgirl and her now fiancé, Jack, once captain of the football team, perfectly.

Finally, the plane touched onto the rainy tarmac of PDX and she almost mowed over several old ladies in her attempt to get to Jack's old pickup. However, as soon as she stepped out into the covered dome, she was shocked to see there was no old truck, no Abercrombie and Fitch model in scuffed up cowboy boots and no fat dog named Mack.

She glanced around, tapping her heels on the pavement before fishing out her cellphone, punching in Jack's phone number. Of course it went straight to voice message as it always did and so she quickly left a message.

"Hey Jack, its Izzy. If you're ever going to get your lazy ass off of your horse and pick me up, I would be a very happy camper. I'll talk to you later." She snapped her phone closed and went to wait inside.

However, hours passed without a word from her cowboy beau and she began to fret. What if he had gotten into a crash on the way from her hoinkydink little town? Her parent's and brother's phones were off too, strangely enough because her brother Eli never stopped texting. She fiddled with her suitcase handle and read the rest of her book and even bought a Starbucks latte before finally deciding what she had to do.

Hurrying down the escalator, again knocking several obnoxious old people down the stairs in the process, she raced out into the misty Oregon sunshine that coated the ground. She rummaged in her bag until she found her ID and credit card, renting a car that smelled faintly of sex and old socks, making up her mind that she would have to travel to her town the hard way, so be it.

She kept her phone on and checked it constantly at rest stops, driving through into the wee hours of the morning, watching the foliage turn from evergreens to sagebrush and finally that even gave way to rolling hills and scrubby little trees.

However, when her clock struck 4:00 in the morning, the car gave a shuddering shake and then suddenly stopped, not to start again.

"Oh are you kidding me?" She groaned and slammed her head against the steering column. However, she had to only be about a mile from the town and decided to walk.

Izzy stepped out of the car in her ballet flats and jeans and instantly felt the air tinged with something. Was it blood? Smoke? Electricity? She couldn't be certain but something just didn't seem right. The moon whitewashed the hills, giving them an eerie glow as if they were from another planet. The crickets didn't even sing tonight and the whole world seemed to hold its breath.

She plodded along the road at a steady pace and slowly, something came into view that she knew as her town. Her heart gave a giant leap and she quickened her strides but began to slow as she realized that something wasn't quite right. The town was pitch black and silent which was to be expected at four in the morning but…a silence that seemed to crush the very breath out of her lungs.

"What the hell…" She murmured as she began to enter the town. The bar was deathly quiet as was the all night convince store and they were dark, as if the lights had been sucked out by the stillness of the dark. She shivered involuntarily and wrapped her jacket tighter around her arms. This didn't feel like the town she had grown up in, far from it.

"Hello?" She called out quietly but only received the gentle whistle of the wind as it drifted through broken windows of shops and businesses.

Her foot hit something heavy but soft and she almost fell over, catching herself in the nick of time. When she turned to see what she had hit, she had to cover her mouth to keep from screaming.

She had discovered the first body.

Izzy began to shake wildly, tears forming in her eyes. The body had been brutally ripped open at the chest and the man's eyes were open in shock as if he could hardly believe if someone had dared to take the life from his body. She hurried away from the fallen man, only to discover the others. Each one seemed to be gorier than the last. Dried blood spattered the asphalt and the remains of something slipping away into the night was the only thing that alerted Izzy of the carnage that had ensued only hours earlier. What could have fallen on her perfect little hamlet?

Suddenly, she heard something that made her head whip to the side. It was a carnal scream of an obviously feral animal that made Izzy's heart stop dead in her chest. Did something dart across the roof of the real estate company's building? Was something watching her from the bottom of a darkened window? The moon played dreadful tricks on her eyes and she shivered involuntarily as she backed up to keep from being seen. Her head whipped back up to the top of the building as she heard something else let out a cry of victory. Was she their next prey?

As she began to run down different streets, she began to see more corpses that were once her friends. She had to stop and vomit more than once in terror until there was nothing left but she kept running. The moonlight showed grotesque similarities between most. Mr. Faust, the man who had owned the grocery store and a housewife named Peggy wore the same hole straight through the brain as did many others.

She flew down another long, narrow passage and almost stumbled on another body outside the feed store. He was tall, lean and handsome and Izzy knew exactly who this was the moment she saw him.

"Jack…" She sobbed before touching his lifeless hand. He too wore the telltale hole through the cranium and finally, their hunters made their appearance.

They surrounded Izzy like wolves and she wept when she saw they were like nothing she had ever seen before. Each one seemed to have the exoskeleton of a beetle and they seemed to have no eyes. With this they also possessed a mouth full of needle sharp teeth that secreted a never ending supply of saliva. Their bodies were long and lithe and each had a tail tipped with a rather deadly looking barb.

"Oh gods…" She whimpered as she dragged herself towards the building until her back was against the cold, hard brick. This was the end. They would kill her just like they killed each of her friends and probably her family. She let out a shaky cry like a kitten that was trapped and buried her face into her hands. They seemed to glitter in the moonlight as they moved closer and through tear blurred eyes, she could swear that the air rippled extremely closely to one of the largest creatures. Suddenly, as if her saving grace had been found, a blade was unsheathed and it pierced the head of the one that was closest to Izzy. She gasped as the being's blood splashed onto the ground and ate away at the concrete as if it was a fat kid given cake.

Jack's body was also in the way and it too was eaten through, spilling out his bodily fluids out onto the concrete. Izzy had the sense to duck out of the way before she was too splashed with the acidic blood. Of course the creature wasn't completely dead and so she screamed, "WATCH OUT" to alert the invisible man that the thing's tail was ready to strike. The unseen being, whatever it was, was able to catch the tail in the nick of time and rip it out of the creature's body as it screamed and finally died.

Now several other invisible things that were no longer invisible began to slash away at the hunters. They were giant, the largest probably a good eight and a half feet tall, with humanoid features. They wore battle armor that covered the most vital areas of their bodies and a mask that covered their faces. Jet black dreads decorated in beads and bones fell to about their mid backs and Izzy found herself scrambling out of the way to get out of the massacre. Finally, after she realized that the black creatures that were too busy fighting the big guys to follow her, she hurried to where she knew she could actually be safe.

She hurried down the streets until she finally skidded to a halt in front of "Last Rest-Motel and Suites." The doors hung slightly ajar but she didn't care. Through tear filled eyes, she stepped over the bodies of those fallen and hurried to where she knew she would be safest. One of the many linen closets that filled the hotel was full of pillows and blankets and so, with her mind buzzing, she grabbed whatever she needed to become comfortable and found the laundry room and the giant industrial size dryer that would be her safe haven for at least a little while.

Curling up inside cramped space, she found herself weeping for those she knew were gone. Her mother, her father, her brother and Jack…he was gone forever. She would never get married. She would never have a family of her own and she would never become a grandmother.

As she wept, she realized she had come home to a world that was not her own but the battleground between two races. How did her little town become the war torn terrain of two creatures that were obviously not from earth?

With these questions buzzing around her head, she finally drifted off into a restless, dreamless sleep.


	2. Homecoming

**A/N: As usual, welcome back to all those who have been patiently waiting for me to update this story. I have been trying to get crap done for other stories. XP I finished one of them and lost interest in this one until I stumbled upon it a few days ago and decided it was time for me to start writing on it. So, I hope you guys enjoy it! :D **

**I am always looking for songs that will work for my stories and then I put together a playlist on my computer and on my profile. So if you have a song for this story, PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE leave it in your review! It would make me the happiest camper ever!**

**Reviews are what make the world go round! I love them like...there's no tomorrow. Help this fanfiction writer get paid and GIVE ME REVIEWS! (Please?) **

**Well, since everything has been taken care of...Onto the story.**

**Predators, Aliens aren't mine. (Although I wish they were. :/) Izzy on the other hand, is. Please don't take her, she's only a character! **

**Anyway, enjoy and leave reviews. **

**Eating waffles and Harry Potter, **

**The Flamboyant Cuttlefish**

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_"Seven devils all around me,_  
_Seven devils in my head,_  
_They were there when I woke up this morning, _  
_I'll be dead before the day is done,_  
_Seven devils all around you,_  
_Seven devils in your heart, _  
_I was dead when I woke up this morning, _  
_I'll be dead before the day is done..."_  
**_-Florence + The Machine_**  
**_-Seven Devils_**

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When Izzy opened her eyes again, she was disoriented and found herself rather smashed up into a little ball and she could barely breathe. She gave a little shriek and finally slammed into the door that held her in its confines and fell out unceremoniously onto the floor, swearing slightly under her breath.

Then the events of the previous night came flooding back into her head and she gasped and began to cry softly. They were all dead and she was the only living thing in this town, other than the creepy alien thingies that stalked the streets and their hunters.

"No sense sitting around here to get eaten or something," She muttered to herself, grabbing a sheet and spying the industrial sized sink to go along with the industrial sized everything else. No need to get eaten while she looked just about ready to rip off her shirt and start dancing around the fire like a savage. Getting clean was something she probably thought was best.

She washed off her face and hands before moving up her arms and then her neck, wiping away slime and blood that had gathered there. Izzy winced as her hand came into contact with a rather long, nasty gash that something had given her the night before.

Actually, truth of the matter was, Izzy was extremely beat up and her arms, face, hands and even legs and feet showed it. Her once city-girl-meets-country bumpkin outfit was now in shreds and blood oozed from the most unlikely places. She hadn't realized just how tired she really was, either.

However, these things aside, she had to go somewhere. She couldn't live in a hotel basement the rest of her life. So, slowly and silently making her way up the stairs, she was able to find several weapons, one being a shotgun that the owner of the hotel, her uncle Max, had carried with great pride, several kitchen knives in a knapsack she had found in one empty room, and a machete (She found herself not asking) to keep her safe.

She was going home.

Her house, a little ranch style house about three miles outside of town, was hopefully a safe haven. The monsters and aliens that plagued her town probably wouldn't have gone out that far and so, with a deep breath and a silent prayer to the deity of her choosing, she shoved open the hotel's doors and stepped out into the bright sunlight that told the world that this was Eastern Oregon.

Her town was as silent as the grave. In the sunlight, the bodies were even more noticeable, in different variations of decomposition with a smell so foul, it made Izzy heave. She made a vow then and there she wouldn't join the ranks of the dead. Hoisting the gun over her shoulder and squeezing the machete tighter, she began to run, hoping the creatures really liked to sleep in in the mornings.

She jumped over another unfortunate body and ran past the grocery store, past the Cinemas, past the churches that would hold no salvation now. Her family was a devote group of Mormons but she had come to realize her own in college. Her family wanted her to go to BYU but she wanted to go to some big liberal school, get all the world had to offer.

She had dropped the religion and title as soon as she stepped off the plane in California. She had sex, she had drunk alcohol, she had sworn and it felt amazing. Her family was ignorant and she was now coming to conclusions just how ignorant they could actually be.

She hurried on faster, the shotgun bouncing against her back, glancing over her shoulder every so often to make sure she wasn't being followed. When she was convinced that she wasn't, she began walking to conserve energy until…

The rattle of a tin can from an alley made her swing the gun to the front of her body towards the sleek black creature that was now leisurely strolling towards her, like a cat with a cornered mouse.

"Get back!" She screamed, cocking the weapon, "Get back, you thing! I have a gun and I'm not afraid to use it!"

_Oh yes Izzy, well done. If it didn't know you have a gun, it will certainly know now._ She thought, mentally kicking herself for sounding so stupid. However, she raised the gun towards the creature and didn't give it another warning. She fired the weapon with a resounding CRACK and the monster stumbled back because the bullet, while not right in the center, had made its mark in the creature's black exoskeleton. It had crushed the left side of its head and acidic blood poured down out of its head and fell to the ground, eating away at the concrete and tar.

The thing gave an unearthly shriek and then began to writhe, giving her time to turn on her heel and book it towards the desert, where her family's estate lay in the distance. The shotgun bounced against her butt as she ran and her breath came in short, shallow gasps as she tried to get away from the hellish screams of the monster that tried to pursue her but ultimately failed.

Izzy ran for everything she was worth, the buildings giving way to the open skies of Oregon. Only when she was finally out of view of the town did she allow for herself to stop, her lungs burning, and retch up the nothingness that filled her stomach. The burning sensation moved up into her nose and made her head hurt and she whimpered slightly, trying to get the feeling out of her nose.

After several minutes of crying and retching, she stood up and wiped her nose with the shredded remains of her plaid jacket and threw it into the sagebrush. She hoisted the knapsack up onto her back again and the shotgun over that and slowly made her way towards the homestead.

The walk was long and flat and she wished desperately that she had grabbed some water or sunscreen before she left. She was a pale girl naturally, her mother always slathering her up with lotion before she went out and worked when she was little. The sun burned her skin quickly and along with having a terrible headache and cuts, she became dreadfully sunburned.

However, the walk was in her favor too. It gave her time to contemplate on the terrible creatures that stalked her town and the things hunting them. The things had been almost humanoid except for their mottled skin. Despite the situation she was in, Izzy found herself smiling slightly. She had played Halo with her peers at college and knew all about super soldiers. Was it possible that these warriors were some sort of super soldier placed here by the government?

She laughed and shook her head at the idea and then continued on her way, walking at a steady pace under the perfectly cerulean sky. Sagebrush was everywhere and actual tumbleweeds blew across the neglected roads.

Finally, she turned to the right and walked under a sign that read "Hell's Ranch-Population: Rattlesnakes, tumbleweeds, and a whole hell of a lot of cows."

The road was long and winding, another mile at least to add onto her already excruciatingly long journey but she didn't mind too much. As she walked, she kept her eye focused on a spot in the horizon, where she knew her house was.

After what seemed like a lifetime, she saw the little two storied farmhouse complete with a weathervane and Izzy's tiredness was forgotten. She ran towards the house, her stomach flipping and flopping like a fish out of water. However, something was dreadfully wrong. There was no bark of a dog, no bray of the horses or cows, and no friendly shout from her father.

_They're all inside,_ she told herself reassuringly, _Of course, after everything that's been happening in town, they'd all be inside, not working._

She continued to slowly mount the porch and felt a whisper of wind on the back of her neck. Instantly, the gun was up and poised, but there was nothing to shoot. She frowned slightly when she felt the wind almost pulling her towards the back deck. Izzy hoisted the gun over her shoulder and slowly made her way towards the back deck.

The thing that greeted her was almost too terrifying for words. In the pasture, about five hundred feet away from the house was the beginning of a cliff. In the cliff was an absolutely perfect fifteen foot in diameter hole that led down into some dark abyss.

"Holy shit," She gasped and groped for the side of the house for some support. She slid down the side and shook so hard that her knives rattled against each other. What the hell was that thing?

Now apprehensive about going inside, she slowly stood back up; gun poised and slowly opened the back door. It slowly creaked open and Izzy stepped over the threshold carefully, afraid that there might be something lurking in the shadows.

"Mom?" She whispered, but received no answer, "Dad, are you in here somewhere?"

Still, silence filled her ears. She moved slower now, the tension in the house so thick she could cut it with a knife. The air seemed to weigh down on her shoulders, so thick she could barely breathe in it. There was nothing alive in this household.

Suddenly, a soft moan caught her attention. The gun was whipped up and she narrowed her eyes, noticing her hands were shaking visibly. The noise turned into coughing and then crying and then…her name…

"Izzy, help me…" Came the weak, pathetic mew and Izzy threw down the gun and raced to the second floor where her mother lay on the floor, pale and sweaty. Her own blonde hair was limp and sticky and her blue eyes darted left and right in a panic. Her chest had a growth inside of it and the growth was moving noticeably.

"Mom…oh Mom…" She sobbed, dropping to the ground and grasping her mom's hands, "What happened?"

Her mother swallowed audibly and then spoke, "The ground…around the cliff…was warm and archeologists…came searching…but the aliens released the…aliens…and destroyed the town." Her mother's head lulled back and her breath seemed strained. The thing inside of her chest moved and Izzy had to look away to keep from throwing up.

"Mom, can you move? I'll get you to a hospital, anywhere! Just tell me where I need to go." She begged her mother who gave a cough.

"You can't…help me, Izzy. Your father and brothers…are already…" She struggled to breathe but then laughed slightly, "You're alive. How did you…survive?"

Izzy gave a shaky laugh and squeezed her mother's hands. "I just did, I guess."

Suddenly, the thing in her mother's chest gave a violent jerk and her mother's breath rushed out of her and her head lulled to the side, her eyes were glassy and dull.

"Mom," Izzy called, shaking her mom, "MOM! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE!"

Suddenly, there was a brutal explosion and Izzy was thrown back as a baby Alien leapt from her mother's disemboweled chest and began moving towards Izzy. She was so shell shocked, she could only stare in horror at the creature that was now inching its way towards her Conversed feet. However, that didn't last long because she quickly dispatched it with a kitchen knife, the acidic blood burning through the blade as easily as the butter the knife might have once cut through.

She raced back over to her mother's side and grasped her hand, praying that there might be some life left she could salvage but her mom remained cold and unmoving.

"Mom, Mom, MOM!" She screamed, shaking and slapping her mother, "Wake up, please…Oh God…Mom…" She leaned over her mother's body and wept. "I don't want to be an orphan…"

She wasn't sure how long she lay over her mother's body but something caught her attention and made her head snap up. There was something moving rather quickly above her head in the attic that dragged something behind it. Instantly, she knew it was one of those monsters that had just killed her mother, but she didn't care. Let them come and kill her. Maybe God would take pity on her and let her be with her family.

She heard it at the door and looked up to see its salivating mouth almost ready to bite her head off. She felt a whimper building up in her throat but she stayed strong and looked death right in the face.

It slowly opened its mouth, exposing its needle sharp teeth and was about ready to end Izzy's life with one fell swoop of its second mouth when all of the sudden…

SHCLORP!

A throwing blade embedded itself into the creature's neck, spewing acidic blood everywhere and Izzy screamed as it hit her cheek. The searing pain that followed was almost unbearable and she felt herself feel faint and dizzy with the smell and agonizing pain that blossoming throughout her whole body.

The last thing Izzy Cartwright saw before she fell into an unconscious stupor was alien fall and a humanoid creature making its way towards her, mask still glinting evilly in the dimming light of Izzy's mind.

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**Review, leave me song ideas for the playlist, add the story to your list of favorite stories, if you liked it. **

**Dancing like a cephlepod! **

**-Flamboyant Cuttlefish**


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